OT-Black Company - Page 4

JimMorrison · #31 July 2nd, 2008, 04:10 AM

Okay Badger, you win my friend.

I'm going to check out Neverwhere, as this is not the first place I've seen the name Neil Gaiman just lately, so it must be a sign. If that works out, I may pick up some others - but I don't spend as much time reading as I used to, so we shall see how that goes.

At any rate, thanks!

Leif_- · #32 July 2nd, 2008, 08:05 AM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
Stephen Brust is a wonderful writer, and I can't recommend him enough, except that I just can't abide his Taltos novels. To me they read like an internet chatroom live action role-playing melodrama, where everybody's part dragon, part elf, and part supermodel, with a mandatory tragic past, lost love, sentient weapon, adopted children, sparkling emerald eyes, and enough powerful friends to gag a senate committee. So, take that as you will, but I do consider him extraordinarily talented, aside from that. Try "Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill"

It's not fantasy, but it's good.

Personally, I had a sentient beltbuckle. And I'd recommend Brust's "To Reign in Hell" before "Cowboy Feng's". It's fantasy, captain, but not as we know it. It's also brilliantly written.

I also recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasy, in particular her "Curse of Chalion."

MaxWilson · #33 July 2nd, 2008, 01:52 PM

I also like Brust's TRIH. Very tragic.

-Max

lch · #34 July 2nd, 2008, 02:48 PM

Hi, all this talk about the fantasy books got me interested and I found some images which would make nice Dom3 maps. Maybe one of the fans of the "A Song of Ice And Fire" series wants to make a Dom3 map out of Westeros with those images?

See http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...?Number=621022

HoneyBadger · #35 July 3rd, 2008, 03:28 AM

I haven't read TRIH. Cowboy Feng was the first experience I had with Brust, and although it's probably not everybody's cup of tea, the extraordinary, even awesome, thing about Cowboy Feng is that every chapter in the book is written in a different writing style-and there are a lot of chapters. It's like reading an anthology of 16 different short stories by 16 different authors, except that they're all the *same* author, and they all continue the *same* story. That's special, especially to me because, as a writer, I like to play with different styles and mimic other authors.

By the way, speaking of modern writers, this is what I'm reading now:

http://www.johndiesattheend.com/

I'm only on the first few chapters so far, but it's really, really good! not to mention free, and easily accessible online.

sum1lost · #36 July 3rd, 2008, 08:16 AM

Hey, honeybadger, as a writer, what do you think of the community at Pagesunbound?

if you aren't familiar with the site, it has a bunch of aspiring writers who are attempting to circumvent publishers by self-publishing online.

HoneyBadger · #37 July 3rd, 2008, 08:19 AM

Well, I love self-publishing. I'll check the site out, thanks

Leif_- · #38 July 4th, 2008, 04:04 AM

Quote:

sum1lost said:
if you aren't familiar with the site, it has a bunch of aspiring writers who are attempting to circumvent publishers by self-publishing online.

Commenting as a reader, I'm not interested in reading anything that have "circumvented the publishers." I don't want to have to sort through the slush pile myself.

JimMorrison · #39 July 4th, 2008, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Leif_- said:

Quote:

sum1lost said:
if you aren't familiar with the site, it has a bunch of aspiring writers who are attempting to circumvent publishers by self-publishing online.

Commenting as a reader, I'm not interested in reading anything that have "circumvented the publishers." I don't want to have to sort through the slush pile myself.

You make the assumption that the publishers' interests and your interests coincide, and that therefor they tend to make the best choices for you.

Since you are here, I would assume that you are not a slave to the Best Sellers' list, so I actually find this comment a bit odd.

Well that comment, not this one, I don't find this one odd at all. >.> Okay, the last comment, yes that was odd, but the one before it wasn't, neither is this one.

Shhhh.

Leif_- · #40 July 4th, 2008, 08:39 AM

Quote:

JimMorrison said:
You make the assumption that the publishers' interests and your interests coincide, and that therefor they tend to make the best choices for you.

Not at all; but experience has shown that publisheres overall make good choices for me, and I'm willing to pay them for that work. Plus, what I've seen of self published writing tends to suggest that practically all of it is overwritten, underedited, badly clicheed tripe.

Besides, the interests of an author's are no more convergent with my own than are those a publisher's, so why should I believe that self-publishing authors would in any way benefit me as a reader?